Your smartphone could be damaging your skin
We already know that smart devices can lead to decidedly 21st-century issues like tech neckand cellphone elbow, but some experts also suggest that they can cause premature aging of your skin. The culprit, they claim, is HEV or high energy visible light, which is naturally occurring but also pours out of the screens of devices like smartphones, computers and tablets.
A study out of the University hospital of Nice in France found that compared to UVB irradiation, blue-violet light (also known as HEV) created significantly more pronounced hyperpigmentation of the skin that lasted up to three months. Other experts link the blue light from smartphones to sagging skin and photoaging.
“Excessive blue light accelerates the oxidation process, causing hyperpigmentation,” Dr. Howard Murad, a New York-based dermatologist, pharmacist and founder of Murad Skincare, said to Refinery29. “Its oxidative effects elicit inflammation and damage the skin barrier making it more prone to signs of aging, increased uneven skin tone, dullness, pigmentation, and fine lines and wrinkles.”
Until recently, the bulk of the focus on HEV’s potential dangers has been on its effects on eyesight and sleep, but now experts are beginning to examine how it could impact skin. (Unlike UVA and UVB rays, however, there is no link between HEV and skin cancer.)
“I recently got back from the American Academy of Dermatology meeting and one of the things that were being discussed there was whether visible light such as HEV or infrared ought to be protected against in sunscreens,” Dr. Andrew Birnie, a dermatologist and skin cancer specialist at the William Harvey and Kent and Canterbury Hospitals, said to The Guardian in June.
But much as you should probably distance yourself from your phone for social and psychological reasons, there’s no definitive proof that it will cause your skin to look older or damaged.
Team Rejuvee